Iain Dowie: Birmingham Are On The Rise

Speaking exclusively with BOYLE Sports , former Premier League manager Iain Dowie has backed Birmingham to continue to rise in the coming seasons.

Dowie has backed Rob Edwards and Middlesbrough to be a perfect match and argues Norwich will find it difficult to hold onto Sargent as “money talks”.

Elsewhere, the now pundit praised the work of Mousinho at Portsmouth but didn’t mince his words on Sheffield Wednesday, calling them a “shambles” and saying Still will have his work cut out for him to manage Southampton in the Championship.

Edwards And Middlesbrough: A “Perfect Match”

This could be a real match made in heaven here. You've got a brilliant chairman in Steve Gibson, who's supportive and humbly looks after the ex-players brilliantly. I’ve met him a couple of times, Rob Edwards, who's not only a good football manager but that standard of human being too.

I wish he'd never left Luton, it was my first club, I'm a West Ham fan, but Luton is very close to my heart, and it was just strange. So I think they need to be active for sure. Alfie Jones is a huge acquisition. Huge. For that money, it is very decent, and that will give everyone a lift. If he can help get things going, then there's certainly goals in the team.

I like Rob Edwards’ chances. He knows it, he understands it, and I'd love to see him be back at the top of the game again.

Middlesbrough To Be Promoted @ 5/1

5/1

● LIVE ODDS Middlesbrough Promotion

Davies Set For Birmingham Move

It doesn’t look like Ben Davies will be involved at Rangers under Russell Martin, so it looks like the writing is on the wall.

He knows what he has to do. Rangers do have that European football attraction, but Birmingham are a club moving forward, and they have just had an unbelievable season with Ben right at the heart of it.

I played in the day when Birmingham were a very, very big football club. He can go back there and add in his experience again, which is what they need. He has been outstanding for them, and it’s the right move.

Don’t hang about at a club if you might not be involved and won't play football, which I suspect he won’t

Sargent Crucial To Norwich, But Money Talks

I had reservations about Josh Sargent; those reservations have been chucked out the window. Not only has he got an amazing amount of assists, but his goal record speaks for itself.

He's a midfield player, really, attacking midfield of course, but he’s got 48 goals in 128 games, 15 last year. It’s the Frank Lampard blueprint of getting goals from midfield that we don’t really see anymore.

If you get a lot of assists, you still should be getting goals. It's fundamentally important to keep hold of Josh Sargent; it looks like Wolfsburg may be looming large, and that would be a huge loss. Money talks, but it would be a huge hole to fill for both goals and assists.

Mousinho Has Done A Great Job

J ohn Mousinho is doing a great job at Portsmouth; he only tripped up last year, I think, because Colby Bishop wasn’t fully fit, which was a shame to see. They’ve got Callum Lang, Josh Murphy, and brought in John Swift. You can also name Andre Dozzell, Nicolas Schmid, Hayden Matthews and Terry Devlin.

I think John Mousinho has got them on the up Whether or not it’s enough, we will have to see. They had that Disney connection, and I thought they would boom. Maybe this will be the year. If Pompey got going, trust me, their fans are ridiculous, and they could be huge. Mousinho has done a great job so far.

“Shambles” Sheffield Wednesday

I remember when Sheffield Wednesday were a bonafide, premium top-flight club all the time. Unbelievable ground with unbelievable atmosphere. In recent times, there has been no investment in the ground, zero.

There have been unpaid wages, it’s a shambles with no investment, there is talk of a buyout, but it's nowhere near good enough. You can't allow this to happen to a magnificent club. I thought Danny Rohl did a brilliant job. So, getting rid of Danny Rohl, maybe he was looking to get out, I don't know the ins and outs, but nonetheless, I think it's a really strange thing.

Players are leaving in their droves, so I just worry for Sheffield Wednesday, I really do. They're still in the shake. It could have easily been the scenario in which they weren’t. In the end, Danny Rohl had a fantastic little period. It didn’t finish well, but I watched a lot of football he played, and it was very, very entertaining.

Still Deserves Southampton Shot

Will Still deserves to be given a shot in England thanks to what he did at Reims and Lens; he was the youngest manager to have 17 games unbeaten in a top flight. He just deserved it. I think Southampton have brought him in because he's youthful and transformative, but they cannot keep losing players.

The Tyler Dibling talks are bubbling over, Sam Amo-Ameyaw has gone. I've got a fantastic empathy for the club because I spent four years there. I think Will Still is brilliant, but he's got to have the tools. Kamaldeen Sulemana is another player to have gone, and they need to make some additions quickly.

This is a really tough division, and unless you hit the ground running, you can get in a rut. I think a club of Southampton’s size needs to be better organised than they are as we speak.